Mark Mulligan | MIDiA Research

Exclusive: Deezer Is Exploring User Centric Licensing

Mark Mulligan

19 Apr 2017

One of the great, though less heralded, successes of streaming in 2016 was keeping the lid on artist angst. Previous years had been defined by seemingly endless complaints from worried and angry artists and songwriters.

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Quick Take: UK Recorded Music Industry Grew By 5.1% in 2016

Mark Mulligan

13 Apr 2017

Music

The recorded music industry’s run of good news stories continues with the BPI’s announcement that UK revenues grew by 5.1% in 2016. As in other markets, streaming is the fuel in the engine. Revenues hit £925.

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Universal And Spotify’s Deal Is An Even Bigger Deal Than It Looks

Mark Mulligan

4 Apr 2017

Major labels

music licensing

Spotify

Universal Music and Spotify have finally agreed on terms for the streaming service’s new licensing deal which reportedly includes better rates tied to growth targets and premium windowing. Check out Tim Ingham’s piece for detail on the deal.

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Q4: 2016 Streaming Music Market Update
Competition Is Hotting Up

Cover image for Q4: 2016 Streaming Music Market Update

Mark Mulligan

April 2017

Streaming

Spotify

YouTube

2015 was the year in which streaming music came of age but 2016 was the year when it hit the long anticipated milestone of 100 million subscribers, transforming the global recorded music business. 2016 was defined by accelerated subscriber growth, steady global expansion, new competition and strengthening streaming brand identities.

Welcome To The Post-DIY Era

Mark Mulligan

20 Mar 2017

ADA

Bandcamp

BandLab

I recently took part in the True Music Forum in Madrid, an event organized by Boiler Room. I was on a panel that explored whether DIY is now coming of age with a host of high profile artists, most of them urban artists, bypassing or twisting the traditional label model and still achieving stand-out success.

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How Ed Sheeran Broke The Charts

Mark Mulligan

13 Mar 2017

Atlantic Records

charts

divide

Unless you have been hiding under a stone on Mars this last few weeks you will have struggled not to hear or see some clip of Ed Sheeran one way or another. Atlantic Record’s carpet bombing market campaign has tipped Sheeran into global ubiquity.

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MIDiA Exclusive: 7digital Acquires Leading Competitor 24-7

Mark Mulligan

10 Mar 2017

24-7

7 digital

7Digital

UK music services provider 7digital today announced they are currently considering the acquisition of longstanding competitor 24-7 from German retail giant MediaMarktSaturn (MMS). 24-7 is one of the longest standing companies in the entire digital music space, founded in 2000 (MMS took a majority holding in 2009).

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Global Recorded Music Revenues Grew By $1.1 Billion In 2016

Mark Mulligan

1 Mar 2017

Media and Marketing

Following on from the global market share numbers we released on Sunday , here are our findings regarding the growth of the overall market. Throughout 2016 as the major label earnings were coming in there was a growing awareness that 2016 was going to be a landmark year for the recorded music business.

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Quick Take: Soundcloud Go Take 2

Mark Mulligan

1 Mar 2017

Major labels

Music Subscriptions

SoundCloud

Soundcloud Go, Soundcloud’s initial foray into the world of premium subscriptions was never the best of fits for the Berlin based streaming upstart. Soundcloud has achieved something few others have in streaming: it has carved out a unique proposition, user base and catalogue.

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Global Recorded Market Music Market Shares 2016

Mark Mulligan

26 Feb 2017

Major labels

Sony Music

Sony/ATV

MIDiA and Music Business Worldwide have been tracking record label and publisher financial releases throughout 2016. In addition MIDIA has conducted market sizing work on the publishing sector and research for the Worldwide Independent Network’s (WIN) indie label market share project.

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Recorded Music Market Shares
Streaming Drives Growth

Cover image for Recorded Music Market Shares

Mark Mulligan

February 2017

Spotify

Recorded music

Deezer

MIDiA has been tracking record label and publisher financial releases throughout 2016. In addition MIDIA has conducted market sizing work on the publishing sector and research for the Worldwide Independent Network’s (WIN) indie label market share project.

Live Entertainment
Measuring Music's Place

Mark Mulligan

February 2017

Streaming Music

Spotify

live music

The live music industry has always had a slightly incongruous relationship with its recorded music industry cousin. Often having to tolerate the record labels’ business being called ‘the music industry’ and equally often, finding itself at the focus of consumer discontent over ticketing practices.

Four Companies That Could Buy Spotify

Mark Mulligan

15 Feb 2017

21st Century Fox

Alibaba

amc theatres

For much of 2016 it looked nailed on that Spotify would IPO in 2017 and that the recorded music industry would move onto its next chapter, for better or for worse. The terms of Spotify’s $1 billion debt raise (which mean that Spotify pays an extra 1% on its 5% annual interest payments every six months beyond its previously agreed IPO date) suggest that Spotify was thinking the same way too.

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Change Is Afoot In Music Video

Mark Mulligan

9 Feb 2017

Facebook

facebook music strategy

Google

Music video’s two power players are both in the news for strategic resets. On the one hand YouTube has announced that it is mergingits YouTube Music and Google Play Music team s while on the other hand Vevo has announced it is postponing the launch of its subscription service in favour of prioritising global expansion .

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Streaming Music Pricing: Inelastic Stretching

Mark Mulligan

7 Feb 2017

music pricing

music subscribers

Music Subscriptions

Pricing has long been an issue for streaming music subscriptions, with the $/€/£ 9.99 price point above what most people spend on music each month. Streaming services have navigated around the issue with a combination of tactics such as telco bundles and aggressive price discounts (e.

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Streaming Music Pricing
Inelastic Stretching

Mark Mulligan

February 2017

Streaming

Streaming Music

streaming subscriptions

Pricing has long been an issue for streaming music subscriptions, with the $9.99 price point having the double challenge of reducing the spending of the most valuable music buyers and being higher than the average spend of most music buyers. Streaming services have worked around the issue with a combination of telco music bundles and aggressive price discounts.

Why Netflix Can Turn A Profit But Spotify Cannot (Yet)

Mark Mulligan

19 Jan 2017

Content strategy

Netflix

Netflix originals

Having just celebrated its 10 th (streaming) birthday, Netflix followed up with a strong earnings release, announcing 5.8 million net new paid subscribers in Q4 , sending its share price up by 9%. This wraps up a stellar year for Netflix, one in which it doubled down on original programming and delivered acclaimed hits such as Stranger Things and The OA, shows that don’t fit the traditional TV mould.

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Announcing MIDiA’s New Research Practice: Paid Content

Mark Mulligan

11 Jan 2017

conversion

Digital Media Strategy

facebook strategy

We are proud to announce the launch of MIDiA’s latest research practice: Paid Content. We’ve been working on this service for the past 9 months and it is headed up by our Paid Content analyst Zach Fuller.

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Introducing MIDiA's Streaming Music Health Check

Mark Mulligan

10 Jan 2017

2nd quarter 2016

curation

digital music

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the following MIDiA report on our report store: 'Streaming Music Health Check: Streaming’s Watershed Moment'. You can purchase the report here. MIDiA Research subscription clients already have full access.

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Music Subscriptions Passed 100 Million In December. Has The World Changed?

Mark Mulligan

6 Jan 2017

Amazon

Amazon Prime Music

Apple Music

In streaming’s earlier years, when doubts prevailed across the artist, songwriter and label communities, one of the arguments put forward by enthusiasts was that when streaming reached scale everything would make sense.

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